AbstractThe need to investigate the level of seismic pounding risk of buildings is apparent in future building code calibrations. In order to provide further insight into the pounding risk of adjacent buildings, this study develops a numerical simulation approach to estimate the seismic pounding risk of adjacent buildings separated by a minimum code‐specified separation distance during a certain period of time. It has been demonstrated that the period ratio of adjacent buildings is an important parameter that affects the pounding risk of adjacent buildings. However, there is no specific consideration for the period ratio in the related seismic pounding provisions of the 1997 Uniform Building Code. Results also reveal that, for two adjacent buildings, the probability distribution of required distance to avoid seismic pounding fits very well with the type I extreme value distribution. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.